Before My Time is about the ancestry and extended family of my four grandparents: John Samuel Krentz (Indiana/North Dakota), Margreta Tjode Hedwig (Gertie) Buss (North Dakota), Rosmer Pettis Kerr (Pennsylvania/Michigan), and Evelyn Elvina Hauer (Michigan). Archives, Labels (tags), and other links appear at the bottom of the page.

Friday, March 23, 2007

The steamship Frisia of the Hamburg America Line was built in 1872. Measuring 349.5' long and 40.2' wide, the Frisia carried passengers from Hamburg and Havre to the Port of New York. On a crossing that arrived October 22, 1874, passengers included several people from the village of Dammeretz in Mecklenburg Schwerin.

(click to enlarge)

A few years ago, I did extensive research in the records of Vellahn parish, which includes the manor village of Dammeretz (a.k.a. Dammereez) and several other small villages between Hagenow and Boizenburg, Germany. I created a database of vital records pertaining to about 700 Vellahn parish residents of the 18th and 19th centuries. I attempted to include all records pertaining to any resident with the surname Brandt or Behm, and also included many records of other families that were related to any Brandt by marriage. Several surnames in the Vellahn database will be familiar to residents of White County, Indiana.

In the illustration above, I've attempted to match several names on the Frisia passenger manifest with their full names as they appear in the Vellahn database. (Apologies for an omission: the first name on my list should be Johann Freidrich Wilhelm Dahling for completeness.)

The descendancy charts below help to illustrate the relationships between these travelers. Passengers on the Frisia in October 1874 are shown in blue.

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Johann Heinrich Wilhelm Brandt and his wife had eight children, three of whom died in infancy in Dammeretz, where the family lived in servant quarters on the manor estate. Of the five children they raised to adulthood there, three traveled with them to the United States in October 1874.

Anna Maria Julie Rompage Brandt was sixteen years old when she came to the United States with her parents. She was not quite eighteen when she married her first husband. Widowed in 1887, she married her second husband in 1889.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Friday, December 15, 1911(click to enlarge - may take a moment to load)

March 10:

A very pretty wedding occurred at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Ferdinand Buss Tuesday afternoon, March 7, when their daughter, Miss Lydia, was united in marriage to Oscar Wieg, Rev. H. Elster of the German Lutheran church performing the ceremony. After the wedding a reception was tendered the newly married couple, attended by about fifty guests. A sumptious [sic] wedding supper was served, after which the evening was spent in having a good social time. The bride is a charming young lady who grew from girlhood to young womanhood in this vicinity. The groom is a prominent young farmer living west of Sheldon. He has a nice little home where he and his bride will start housekeeping. The Progress extends hearty congratulations.

April 28:

Jacob Muth, who formerly lived in this vicinity, but is now engaged in the livery business at Kidder, S.D., arrived in Sheldon last Monday afternoon, accompanied by a constable, in search of a team of horses that he believed to have been stolen. It appears that a fellow named Jefferson, a barber at Kidder, had hired a team for a short drive to one of the neighboring towns. He did not return that day, and the following morning it was found that he had not been to the town that he had stated he was going to. Information given by different parties led to the belief that Jefferson had gone to Lisbon, near where he has a sweetheart living, and obtaining the services of a constable, Mr. Muth went to Lisbon to recover the horses, which he believed the young man had run off with, with the intention of stealing. It was found at Lisbon that the team had been left in a livery stable and later removed to the home at which Jefferson was stopping. The searching party proceeded to this place where they found both the horses and the man. When charged with attempting to steal the team, Jefferson pleaded not guilty, stating that he had merely decided to drive to Lisbon for a visit and intended to return with the horses the following day. He returned to Kidder in company with Mr. Muth and the constable, but will probably not be prosecuted, as he was evidently innocent of any wrong intentions.

Pleasant Prairie: A.R. [Reuben] Nohr is having a barn erected on his farm near Venlo. Phillip Nohr is doing the work.

Pleasant Prairie: Phillip Nohr left for Wahpeton yesterday where he will spend about a week looking after business matters.

Pleasant Prairie: Mr. and Mrs. Carl Krueger went to Davenport Wednesday evening to attend the funeral of a young man who was accidentally shot and killed.

Pleasant Prairie: Oswald Ihme's health is not as good as it has been. He was recently operated on for neuralgia of the head and face, and had apparently fully recovered, but is again having trouble with his face.

Pleasant Prairie: August Krueger received a telegram from southern Minnesota last Saturday announcing the sad news of the death of his brother, Michael Krueger. This was followed by a telegram received Sunday stating that Mrs. Krueger's brother, Julius Redmon, had also died.

Pleasant Prairie: A surprise party that really was a surprise was perpetrated upon Frank Nohr last evening in honor of his fifty-third birthday anniversary. About forty of his friends and neighbors assembled and descended en masse upon the Nohr home, literally taking it by storm. The surprise was complete in every detail, but after Mr. Nohr had recovered from the first shock he proved to be a royal entertainer. The older guests spent the evening in conversation, mostly pleasant reminiscences of days gone by, while the younger ones played games and amused themselves as young folks always do at a gathering of this kind. About midnight the guests sat down to an elaborate supper and did full justice to it. At two o'clock they departed for their homes, wishing the host many happy returns of the day.

November 24:

Gerald Froemke went to Fargo last Friday evening to spend a few days visiting friends before departing with his parents for Florida.

Paul W. Froemke went to Fargo Monday evening to begin his new duties in the Northern Immigration Association office. His family will reside here, for the present at least.

Mr. and Mrs. F.W. Froemke and the boys departed Monday evening for Florida to spend the winter. They expect to make their residence at Daytona Beach but will spend part of the time at Fargo, the new town in which several local capitalists are interested. They will stop a few days at Minneapolis, Eau Claire and Milwaukee, Wis., and Chicago, reaching their destination in about two weeks.

Pleasant Prairie: John Reis returned this week from Indiana where he had been called by the serious illness of his mother. He reports her to be somewhat improved and has every hope for her recovery.

Pleasant Prairie: Miss Annie Buss, who has been spending over a year in Minneapolis and Wisconsin, arrived home the latter part of last week, and will spend at least the winter with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Ferdinand Buss.

Pleasant Prairie: The German Lutheran church was the scene of a very pretty wedding Tuesday afternoon, when at four o'clock Miss Laura Nohr and Lewis E. Froemke were united in marriage. About 200 guests witnessed the ceremony which was conducted by Rev. H. Elster. The groom was supported by his brother, Dan Froemke, and Herman Nohr while the bridesmaids were Misses Myrtle and Clara Nohr. The bride was beautifully gowned in white silk. After the ceremony the wedding party repaired to the home of the bride's parents where a reception was held and a wedding dinner served to about 200 guests. The bride is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Phillip Nohr and is a charming and cultured young lady. The groom is a prominent young farmer of this vicinity. The happy couple will start housekeeping at once.

Saturday, March 03, 2007

In a December post on this blog, I identified Elizabeth Schulte Corneilson ("Mama") in the group photo below. After studying the photo, Cheryl Shulte has identified the women standing beside Lizzie. Amelia Schluessler Wellhausen is on the left. Amelia's daughter, Ella Wellhausen Schulte (Cheryl's grandmother) is on the right. The identification of the church remains unconfirmed.

I've had a lot of help through the years from people who didn't think twice about writing pages of family group records for me by hand, or photocopying stacks of documents to send me by mail. Genealogists are a generous lot, even to people they've never met.

I'm very grateful to several distant cousins I've never met but from whom I received a lot of help during the early years of my research:

Thursday, March 01, 2007

Early in February 1869, the bark Jenny departed from the port of Bremen, Germany, bound for New York. It arrived on April 16, 1869. Among the passengers were my great grandfather, Michael Krenz, and his young family.

(click to enlarge)

Michael was 32 years old. He'd been a laborer in Prussia. His wife Anna Louise was 30. Their first three children had died in infancy. They brought with them their fourth child, Gustav Emil, who was two years and six months of age, and their fifth, Wilhelm Martin, who was just three months old when the trip began.

In the course of researching my ancestry, I've often wondered what would motivate families to leave their homeland, their kin, and their way of life to come to a new and unknown country. The Harvard Encyclopedia of American Ethnic Groups (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1980) is an excellent resource for researching this kind of question. In a 20-page entry about Germans, Kathleen Neils Conzen explained that in 19th century Prussia, the growing Industrial Revolution, agricultural reform, and rural overpopulation were changing the old ways of life. Some people migrated to the cities to find work, but for others, emigration to America offered an opportunity to retain their familiar lifestyle. Readers who have questions about their own ethnic group may want to look for this book at their local library.

The Jenny would have looked like this bark-rigged vessel.*

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*A "bark" has three masts, with the foremast and mainmast square-rigged and the mizzenmast fore-and-aft-rigged. Barks were sometimes rerigged as ships or vice-versa. A bark-rigged vessel could sail with fewer crew members than a ship-rigged vessel. Click here for more information about ships from Norway-Heritage.

Our Family in Books: A Bibliography

My Ancestors in Books (a library of resources and notes pertaining to Reverend Samuel Stone, Major General Robert Sedgwick, Elder John Crandall, and other early Americans in the forest where my family tree was grown)

History of St. James Lutheran Church [full title: A little of this and a little of that in the 141 year (1861-2002) History of St. James Lutheran Church, Reynolds Indiana] by Harold B. Dodge, published at Reynolds, Indiana, 2002; 170 pages.

Lisbon, North Dakota 1880-2005 Quasuicentennial, published at Lisbon, North Dakota in 2005; 391 pages.